Prevailing Winds
by MyPastLife
Summary: In a twist of events, Kushina sealed the Kyuubi back into herself just before dying, and has Minato "teleport" her back to Uzu, where she died, but in effect, changes Naruto's fate. Witness the bonds between father and son as they take on a world crueler than hell itself. *NOT ShikaNaru!* Summary will be explained later on. AU.
1. Chapter 1

A gentle breeze swept softly through the grassy clearing, enclosed inside a pocket of trees. If one was to look closely, they would spot the logs, placed all around for substitutions. The leaves rustled, and the wind died down. Then, there was a soft flash of light; yellow light. A man stood, calmly watching the sunset. This man was Minato Namikaze, Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure no sato. Minato had a head full of yellow hair, and bangs that dropped down and framed his face. His eyes were a friendly but piercing ocean blue. He radiated both experience and confidence in large amounts, making anyone around him feel at ease. Unless you were an enemy, of course. As the very edge of the sun disappeared behind the horizon, he turned around and took three paces, before disappearing again with a soft yellow flash.

-Namikaze Compound-

Minato arrived at the compound with another soft flash, and pressed his finger to the chakra-recognition seal on the gate. This was the only way to get in safely. If someone just hopped over the walls, the security seals would use their stored chakra to effectively paralyze the intruder, and then would set off a system of alarms. So far, only one had tried, and that was an assassin from Iwa, who was slaughtered quickly, and had his head sent back to Iwa. The compound was safe just having Minato there in the first place, but he was a cautious man. He entered the living room, which was currently occupied by none other then his sensei, Jiraiya, who was looking through Naruto's new taijutsu scroll; entitled Sairentosutairu (Sairentosutairu roughly translates to "Silent Style").

"Isn't this a little too much?" Jiraiya asked. "He's only six!"

"He's my son, a soon to be an Academy student. He has the right to learn, does he not?" Minato replied, then continued, "And he was the one that talked me into this, not the other way around." With that, Minato crossed his arms and gave a small grin.

"The style requires high speeds, flexibility, and only moderate strength. He's already got flexibility down. Maybe you should take some lessons from him!" Minato joked.

"Don't remind me." Jiraiya grunted.

-Flashback-

Jiraiya and Minato just finished a spar. Naruto, who had sat and observed, got up and walked over to his father, who was watching Jiraiya hobble around clutching his back.

"What happened to oji-san? Is he okay?" Naruto asked.

Minato patted his son's shoulder. "He's fine. This happens every once in a while, as his age is catching up with him." They both watched as Jiraiya leaned far backwards and pushing in his back, which popped loudly, followed by a sigh of relief, and then shortly thereafter followed by a groan. Jiraiya was stuck. Naruto tugged at Minato's jacket.

"Tou-san?" Naruto asked.

"Yes?" Minato replied.

"Did you step on a crack?"

-End Flashback-

"Besides that," Minato continued. "He has a natural affinity for-

"Stealth?" A voice interjected. Minato jumped visibly.

Naruto stood behind the couch, beaming brilliantly at Minato, and then Jiraiya.

"How..-" Minato spluttered, dumbfounded.

"Me? I just used the door." Naruto stated innocently. Looking towards the door, they realized what Naruto had done. He had taken down the door and used a henge to transform himself into the door. Since people only touch the doorknob to open it, he made the doorknob tangible, which required a fair amount of chakra.

Jiraiya looked confused, then suprised and proud. He then looked at Naruto. "I don't know whether to hug you or send you to ANBU headquarters."

Now it was Naruto's turn to be confused. "Why would you send me there?"

Jiraiya looked Naruto in the eye. "They could learn a thing or two from you."

Naruto then had an idea. He turned to his father and asked "Could I?"

"No" Minato stated. "But before you start whining, I have a question." Naruto blinked and waited. Minato inwardly grinned at the response he was just about to invoke.

"How would you like to skip the Acadamy and train with me?"

"Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!" Naruto shouted.

Minato grinned. "But there's one thing you need to understand."

Naruto just blinked, wating. Minato's grin slowly faded, and became that of a parent instructing their child.

"If you manage to steal Kakashi's Icha Icha Paradise, I might consider teaching you the Rasengan. Consider this your first training exercise."

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Cool! Do I start now?"

"Yep!" Minayo chirps. Naruto was out the door in an instant.

Jiraiya chuckled. "Poor bastard won't know what hit him."

Minato couldn't help but agree.


	2. Chapter 2

Kakashi was enough into his book that he might have not noticed that awfully suspicious creak his door makes when it open, and perhaps that looming shadow that seemed to stem from somewhere behind him. He looked up at the fireplace, trying to think, and then looked back down at his empty hands. Why am I looking at my hands? Kakashi asked himself. He just put his hands down and looked back at the fireplace and continued to think of what he was thinking of before...wait..what was that..?

Kakashi hopped up into action.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Kakashi roared, and took off out of his now open door.

-Meanwhile-

Kiba and Akamaru sneezed at the same time. Ino took this moment to capitalize, and punched him in the face.

"Take that Kiba-baka!"

Kiba moaned from his position on the ground.

-Namikaze Compound-

Naruto sprung back through the doors, and skidded to a halt in front of two very suprised ninjas. On one hand, they wanted to congratulate Naruto for his achievement, and on the other, they wanted to laugh at Kakashi's enraged frown that could be seen from under his mask.

"Hey, I'm back!" Naruto shouted, and tossed the book to Minato. Minato took one glance, and then gave a questioning eyebrow. Advanced Battle Tactics for ANBU Captains? Congrats on the promotion! Minato signed. Kakashi held out a hand to have is book returned, only for it to come slamming into his face and dropping him to the floor. "I can't believe you could even read this. In public no less!" Minato scolded. "But at least you can come out unscathed, unlike the other pervert in this room."

"Hey, I take offense to that!" Jiraiya half-yelled. "I call a vote. Who thinks I'm able to come out of a fight unscathed?"

Not a single hand rose. "Damn!"

-The Next Morning - 5:30 AM-

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!" A voice chirped. followed by a blast of ice-cold water. "Alright, now that you're up, we're going to warm up by doing five laps around the village!"

-15 minutes later-

"Come on, we're only doing five laps. Get your ass moving!" Minato shouts, tossing a kunai (read: blunt. But Naruto doesn't know that ;D) at Naruto's rear end, earning a 'Yip!' and a burst of speed. After a few more laps, Naruto and Minato ran back to the Namikaze training grounds. Minato handed the Sairentosutairu scroll to Naruto, and explained how to copy the katas. He then had Naruto make 5* Kage Bunshin and then had them read through the scrolls and practice the katas. Next was a crash course in fuuinjutsu, which Naruto took to like a fish to water; so Minato gave him a few books on Fuuinjutsu 1**, so Naruto could do some independent study during his free time, along with some scrolls and ink for practice. The next thing he had Naruto do was hold up his shirt and Minato got out some ink, and began the process of drawing a seal on Naruto's torso. The seal increased the density of the air around his body, so even the slight task of walking back to the training posts was a challenge, like wading through fast-moving water. He had Naruto then dispel his Kage Bunshin, and took a moment to comprehend the load of information that hit him. After that, he had Naruto practice both the katas and the basic strikes, kicks, and holds on the training dummy; 1000 each. By the time Naruto was done, it was 5:30 in the afternoon: 12 hours after they had started.

Naruto fell to the couch in the living room with a groan. He hurt everywhere. He was sore everywhere. His head hurt, and he was ready for a nap. But he was happy. Happy that he had the opportunity to train with his dad, and discovered something that he both was interesting in and had an uncanny knack for; Fuuinjutsu. He took out the first book, entitled Fuuinjutsu: The Sealing Arts - Volume One and began to read with a sigh of both relaxation and interest. Walking into the living room, Minato noticed Naruto and looked up at the ceiling, as if he were looking up into the sky. 'Kushina, if you can hear me, listen. Naruto is going to be the strongest shinobi I could make him, and he will make you proud. I promise.'

A/N:

*- Here, Naruto doesn't have the ability to recharge his chakra levels due to the lack of the Kyuubi, but still has a rather high chakra capacity. He is the son of an Uzumaki and Namikaze, after all.

**-There are a total of fifteen levels of fuuinjutsu.

MyPastLife out.


	3. Chapter 3

*Six months after beginning Naruto's training*

-Namikaze Compound-

Naruto currently sat working on his latest fuuinjutsu masterpiece-a tag that doubled both as a chakra seal and an immobilizer. The tag, when applied to the victim, would start sealing off the victims chakra network (almost like the Jyuuken strikes that the Hyuga use), and just in case the user had enormous amounts of chakra (take his father, for example), he included one of his original seals, that would redirect both blood flow and nerve signals to all muscles, which causes those muscles to contract (like a massive, full-body cramp) effectively immobilizing the opponent.

Fuuinjutsu was not the only thing Naruto had proven himself to be sufficient in. His natural "affinity" for stealth had all but increased, leading to an event a few months earlier that had revealed just how sneaky he could really be.

-Flashback-

-ANBU HQ-

A lone ANBU sat in the middle of the cafeteria, dumbstruck. Pink paint, bright-colored streamers and glitter decorated each and every table. The walls were painted a lime-green, with splotches of brown and black that blended together, effectively making the wall look like a mural about turds.

Speaking of turds, each Captain's room had been broken in to, and had dog feces from the Inuzuka kennels piled around on the floors, and in the toilets. In the captain's bedrooms, there was a small gardening tool, with a sticky note attached that wrote, "Get scoopin'."

The normal ANBU's rooms had their locks and door handles switched around with one another, turning the hallways into an absolute mess, not to mention the stench of dog crap that drifted through the ventilation system.

They knew, thanks to some evidence, who did the crime. And that evidence, was one strand of golden blonde hair.

"NARUTOOOOOOOOO!"

-End Flashback-

Along with his stealth, his taijutsu style complimented his talents perfectly. The style required stealth and the abilty to remain silent to suprise and attack the enemy, taking them down quickly and efficiently. In the open field, the style also allowed suprise attacks. The fluid style requires Naruto to be able to bend and recover momentum quickly and efficiently, leaving little time for the opponent to react. So far, when Naruto had sparred with Sasuke*, the blonde usually came out on top, unless Sasuke pulled an ace out of his sleeve, which apparently, the young Uchiha had a creative streak as long and bold as Naruto's. Needless to say, they got along well.

Today was a very special day for Naruto, because he was now old enough (according to his father) to try to take the Genin graduation exams. For luck, (or "just to be prepared", which he insisted to his father) he donned his new outfit that he had bought the night before. He wore loose black duds that were wrapped underneath white cotton wraps from just under his knee to his feet. He also wore a black training jacket, which was light and breathable, with a mottled gray-black shirt underneath the jacket, along with black shinobi sandles. To finish off the look, he had a kodachi hanging diagonally along his back, with the handle in a reachable area over his right shoulder. The sword itself had dark blue wrappings, with small white diamonds (made from the wrappings revealing the layer of cloth underneath) running along the sides of the hilt.

"Umm, do you really need to wear all that?" Minato asked. Naruto nodded immediately.

"Well, today is the day I become an official shinobi" Naruto stated. "So I think I should at least look the part."

Minato nodded, as in understanding. "Ahh, I see. Already trying to grab the ladies' attentention, eh?" Minato finished with a wink, but was then slapped in the back of the head by a clone Naruto had hidden in the room. "Ouch!" Minato whined. "That hurt!"

An annoyed Naruto stood across from Minato. "You know full well that all that matters to me is my family, and the protection of this village. Starting my career is something important to me, not something to take pokes at. Besides that, women are scary *shiver*.

"Really?" Minato asked, intrigued. "What happened?"

Naruto, now rocking back and forth on the floor, looked up with his Puppy-Eyes no Jutsu. "I swore in front of Yoshino Nara." He concluded weakly.

Minato sweat dropped. Everyone knew that was almost a death sentence. Rumor has it she had a variant of the Hiraishin kunai applied to her favorite frying pan, so she could summon it at will to mercilessly bludgeon any who swore in front of her. The punishment also applied to anyone displaying any signs of tiredness or laziness. And everyone knew the Naras were lazy...they must have a natural resistance to the terror of the godforsaken frying pan.

Naruto took a moment and looked at the clock, and gasped. He needed to get the Academy, now! Picking himself up off the floor and wiping his tears, he gave a quick goodbye to Minato and disappeared in a black blur, without a sound. Minato, now alone in the room, pulled a picture out of his kunai pouch. It was a picture of Minato holding a pregnant Kushina, both smiling at the camera. With a tear falling from his eye, he held up the photo and kissed the red-haired beauty, and then disappeared in a soft flash.

-Testing Facility, Konoha Shinobi Academy-

"There he is! Yondaime-sama's son! Isn't he cute?" A large number of feminine voices squealed at once.

Naruto groaned. Thankfully, Iruka had managed to enter the room, instantly shouting for everyone to shut up.

"Today", Iruka began. "You are all here to take the Genin Exam. You have all made great progress, I am proud of you. As you can tell, there are a few people here that you have not met yet. Those of you who are taking the exam, and not currently attending the Academy, please stand up."

A fairly nice-sized group of kids stood up. Naruto, of course, followed by Sasuke, Shikamaru and Neji.

"Follow me. You will be taking the written exam first." Iruka said, gesturing towards the door. The kids quickly followed. They were then seated in alphabetical order, and handed the test. Remarkably, the test only had one question:

1.) What is the Will of Fire?

Naruto inwardly smirked. His dad practically preached the whole story of the Will of Fire to Naruto many times as a child. So, he started writing. About 15 minutes later and a page and a half of writing, Naruto was done, and calmly handed his paper to Iruka. Looking around the room, he saw that most of them were already done, save for Neji. Knowing Neji, he was probably confusing the Will of Fire with the ten-foot pole of fate stuck up his ass. They waited another 10 minutes and Neji was finally done with his paper. Next, Iruka instructed them to follow him outside, where they did accuracy tests. They had to stand 25 feet from the target, and then throw. Neji hit 10/10, although for some reason he had activated his Byakugan to do so. Sasuke hit 10/10, and said nothing. Naruto finally was up, and thew his first kunai.

The first thing Naruto saw after letting go of his first kunai was the little distortion of air around the kunai. Audibly, Naruto muttered "Shit!", which earned looks of confusion before the kunai reached its target, and then passed through it. There were multiple gasps, and Iruka asked, "Naruto, what did you do?"

Naruto gave a short laugh, "Hehehe, well, I started elemental training last week, and it kind of became an instict after practicing it." Iruka nodded. "Well, just try and hold back on that, alright? We can handle patching up the target, but we don't want to annihilate it." Iruka finished. Naruto nodded and then threw the rest of his kunai one after the other, all of them placing themselves at the center. A perfect 10/10. The rest of the kids then threw their kunai, with the same results. It looked like the clan training had really paid off.

Next was the final part of the exam, the spars. They had another Academy teacher named Mizuki standing in the middle of a circle, with a radius of 20 feet. The score was based on the performance of the student, not whether they won or not. After all, the Academy teachers were required to be at Chunin rank or above. They all wrote their name on a slip of paper before tossing it into a kunai pouch on the ground, where Iruka fished one out and called up the first to be examined: "Hyuuga, Neji"

Neji, who didn't use his Byakugan still won, although noone present was surprised. The Hyuuga were well known across the elemental nations for their prowess at taijutsu.

Sasuke and Shikamaru had gone, and won, and it was finally Naruto's turn.

Stepping into the ring, Iruka started the match. Naruto immediately dropped into the first kata of the Silent Fist style, earning confused looks from his peers and Mizuki himself, who was in the standard Academy Style. The Silent Fist style was seldom heard of, because those who used the style efficiently had no enemies who had encountered them live to tell the weaknesses to others. Not one to be outdone, Mizuki made the first move, a puch aimed at Naruto's stomach. Naruto bent inside the puch, steeping on the inside of Mizuki's foot and did a palm thrust at Mizuki's right shoulder, with enough force to knock him out of the circle. This all happened within 3 seconds and there had been no sound, not counting Mizuki landing and skidding. Naruto realized what he had done, and abruptly apologized to Mizuki. Mizuki smiled back, telling Naruto that he had done a great job. He told Naruto that he had been expecting something much different, so he had applied some special seals that decreased the air resistance around his body so that he could move quicker. The only reason he hadn't dodged was soley (pun intended) because Naruto had him pinned to the ground.

Iruka declared the match a win for Naruto and they went back inside, where Iruka was waiting for them. He handed them all thfteir new Genin headbands, and bid them a good day, and then left to test the other Academy Students who were still waiting to take their tests.

"Guess I really didn't need my sword." Naruto muttered to himself, and then smiled. His father was standing right outside the doorway, eyes gleaming with pride.

"I'm proud of you, Naruto." Minato stated. "By the way, since I really don't have much of a gift like the others, I figured that I would give you a little something that I think you would like." At this, Naruto sat patiently. "You are the be on the first two-Genin squad in Konoha's history. As such, you and your partner will either be sent on your own missions, or you will be sent to assist other squads in need of help."

Naruto couldn't help it anymore. "Who's my partner, and who's my sensei?"

"You will find out tomorrow, and meet at Training Ground 89 at 8:00 A.M sharp. Officially, the name of your squad is the Epsilon Unit, and you will find out why it's named that."

"Umm okay thanks Tou-san!" Naruto blurted, before once again becoming a blur of black and grey heading towards his home.

-The Next Morning, 7:45 A.M.-

-Namikaze Compound-

"UP! UP! UP! UP!" Minato yelled from the doorway. "You need to be at the training ground in 15 minutes!"

Naruto sprang up from the bed. "Oh, shi-" Minato gave a quick death glare. "-nsplints!" Naruto finished, and Minato gave Naruto a thumbs up.

"I hope you do well, Naruto." Minato said, as Naruto finished getting ready and flew out the door.

-Training Ground 89, Main Entrance-

Landing just inside the fence, Sarutobi Asuma lit a cigarette and looked around his new training ground. The ground was flat, meaning it either had been used very little, or that it had been repaired recently. The trees were unmarred, which to Asuma meant that this training ground had been used very little. Trees took quite the beating when they inhabited a village of ninja. Deciding to just sit and wait for his two students, he walked to the nearest tree and leaned against it.

"Hi."

"WHOAAAA!" *choke* "AHHH!" *cough*

Asuma slowly turned his head to the image of a grinning Naruto. "C'mere, brat." Asuma grumbled, pulling Naruto closer and ruffling his hair, which, after a second, turned into a noogie. "You made me choke on my cigarette, kid." Asuma said. Naruto, not a second later, gave Asuma a cheeky response, "I aim to please, Asuma-sensei."

Asuma only grunted. Sneaky son of a gun. Minato, what did you do to this kid? He's just like you, except, well, just stealthier. A LOT stealthier, and it scares me. Very, very much. Asuma thought. A few minutes later, Asuma caught a glimpse of his second student, who was walking along at a leisurely pace with a chronic slouch.

His new student approached the two by the tree, looked at Asuma, then Naruto, and then muttered one word.

"Troublesome."

**MyPastLife out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks everyone for reviewing! You have no idea how much you guys inspire me to keep writing. Writing this story has really allowed me to get my creative juices flowing again, meaning my Language and Composition class grade has gone up, thanks to you guys!**

**On another note, I received a review from an anonymous user "ims". First of all, I would like to thank you for reminding me to make something a little clearer. I did make the kids graduate at a younger age, and picked those characters and those characters only. I have specific reasons why I picked them, and I now figure that this would be the time to let you in on my little "secret." I have Sasuke graduating early because both he and Naruto train together, the Uchiha Clan is eager to produce another Itachi, and since they already succeeded once, they now know how to train them well enough, meaning they can proceed quicker. Naruto's reason is obvious: he is being trained by his father. I only threw in Neji because of his show of talent in the Genin Exams, and if he had proper training, I thought that this could be a probable result. Shikamaru is a trickier case. Shikamaru is a genius, yes. But, as he is 6, it might seem a little extreme, but I can explain (hopefully). With Minato and Shikaku being geniuses in their own right, to me the logic answer would be that both Minato and Shikaku would agree that Shikamaru should be trained younger than most.**

**Sorry for the rant, but it was something I was dying to explain.**

* * *

Asuma nodded. "Yes, Shikamaru, the situation is indeed troublesome. The Hokage had an odd number of Academy graduates, meaning-"

"They either had to hold the worst two back, or do this." Shikamaru interrupted, waving his arms to himself, Naruto and Asuma to make the point. Asuma nodded in confirmation, before speaking once again.

"This team, as you know, is special. In more ways than one." At this, Naruto was curious, it could clearly be seen on his face. Shikamaru was also curious, but it was much harder to tell.

"This team, codenamed Epsilon, is a specialized cell. From what I have heard, this team will specialize in reconnaissance, infiltration, and possibly assassination. For now as Genin, I think I will train you more on the first two up until you reach Chunin rank. When we reach that point, I will then hand you over to the ANBU to take up assassination training. And anything past that point will be up to you. Any questions?" Asuma got nothing in response. "Good. Now that we have this out of the way, let's introduce ourselves. As you know, I'm Sarutobi Asuma. I like smoking, playing shogi-and-go. I dislike anyone who despises smoking in any form, and stupid shinobi. My dream is to become a father, and die of old age. You next, sleepyhead."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, and muttered, "Troublesome. My name is Shikamaru Nara, and that is all. The rest is too troublesome." And yawned, making everyone around sweatdrop. He then looked over to Naruto.

Nodding in recognition, Naruto began, "My name is Naruto Namikaze. I like ramen, playing pranks, and training. I dislike people who can't see people for who they are, but rather who they are related to. My dream is to become either the ANBU representative or the Hokage."

After a few moments, Asuma nodded and said, "Alright. Let's get down to business. Today marks the first day of your training, so I will be giving the two of you a benchmark test. You are to engage me in combat, and I will assess your skill and evaluate your weaknesses, and work from there. You first, Naruto. Shikamaru, you proctor."

Walking to the middle of a clearing, Shikamaru stood between the Genin and Jounin, and then waved his arm. "Hajime!"

Naruto instantly disappeared into the trees silently, leaving Asuma open at the middle of the clearing. Figuring that this was part of Naruto's show of skill, he decided not to go in pursuit. From what Minato told him, Naruto was incredibly talented at pulling plans out of his ass. To a logical combatant, such as Asuma, someone like Naruto was someone you feared the most. Unpredictability is an important trait for a ninja to have to be successful, and Naruto had unpredictability in spades. A lone kunai whistled its way past Asuma's ear, making him spin around, kunai in hand, to block the oncoming attack...which wasn't there. A shadow blurred on his right side, so Asuma rolled back, blocking the axe kick with this forearms, before retaliating with a few thrusts of his own, which were dodged. Naruto then jumped back a good ten feet before coming to a standstill, waiting for Asuma's next move. Asuma then accelerated quickly at Naruto, slightly startling him, and clipped Naruto's shoulder with a hard palm thrust, knocking him off balance and on to his ass. Naruto, inwardly frustrated, resituated himself by leaping off the ground from his back with some chakra, launching him up in the air, where, upon nearing the ground, missed Asuma's head by inches, before wrapping his legs around Asuma's neck, pulling him backwards. Recovering quickly, Asuma did a handspring and landed a good ten feet from Naruto, who was already standing back up. Deciding to pick up the pace, Naruto went back up on the attack. Launching himself forward, Naruto threw a wild punch at Asuma, which was blocked quickly. However, on mid 'wild punch', Naruto stepped on the inside of Asuma's left sandal, and pinned it to the ground using chakra. Not to leave any openings, Naruto took the quick moment and started a fast chop to the carotid artery in Asuma's neck, only for 'Asuma' to be replaced with a poof of smoke, revealing a log.

Asuma came out from the trees and clapped lightly. "Very good, Naruto. I'm impressed, although it's not that hard to comprehend figuring that it is your father that is training you. If you did not have those resistance seals on, it would have made this match a bit harder for me."

Naruto, looking shocked, asked, "How did you know?" To which Asuma chuckled and gave him his answer. "Kid, I'm a wind elemental. I could feel the air moving around you slower than air normally would. It didn't take too much time to figure out what was causing the disturbance."

Before Naruto could ask any more questions, he turned to Shikamaru and asked if he was ready, which earned him a "Yes, but this is just troublesome." as a response.

Naruto gave the quick "Hajime" and dashed off to watch. Shikamaru just stood. Asuma, knowing Shikamaru's clan techniques, knew that it would be unwise to approach. After about ten minutes, Shikamaru opened his eyes and threw kunai seemingly at random around the clearing. It was about ten til ten, meaning that the sun was at its peak, which meant smaller shadows. Shikamaru then started his approach, walking leisurely towards Asuma. "You know, this is really troublesome." Shikamaru stated, and then quickly attempted the Kagemane technique. Asuma, true to his rank, jumped back in time, but ended up landing on a tripwire, binding his feet. Before he could do anything, a shadow had reached Asuma's form, effectively freezing him in place. The odd thing was, Shikamaru was about 50 yards away, about 40 yards further than the Kagemane's range of influence. A quick double take later, Asuma noticed the kunais that were scattered around the training ground, and the thin shadows linking through about five of them, leading to a kunai about 6 feet to his right, and then to himself. Shikamaru had this planned out in only ten minutes, and executed in exactly 30 seconds. He felt the restraints loosen, and unwound the grade-9 (the highest grade of ninja wire available at low prices) wire from his feet.

Asuma chuckled lightly, and started talking. "Good job Shikamaru. The plan was excellent, but had I not landed on that wire, this would have lasted a bit longer, and you might have lost. But I must admit, I underestimated your strategy. I have a feeling both of you will work together much better than I thought you would. This will be all for today's training, I'll see you tomorrow morning."

**MyPastLife out. Don't forget to read and review! :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Before we kick off the chapter, I would like to thank a few reviewers that brought up valid/entertaining points.**

**To "hitsugayatoshiro1220": Thank you for the very honest and critical review. It pointed out errors that I have been trying to "beat" out of my system, and your suggestions to help fix those errors are a lifesaver. I'll also be more careful with chunky paragraphs, and try to supply details as much as I did in Chapter 1.**

**To "Guest": reviewed on 5/14/13: Thanks, I figured that Naruto would still be underestimated (hell, he's only 7!) so Naruto being Naruto took advantage of the situation. Sneaky-sneaky is a good way to describe Naruto, but I wouldn't be all that surprised. Minato **_**did**_** save Kushina from 3 Kumo ninja when he was only a genin (I think)...**

-Namikaze Compound – 6:50 AM-

Minato stood out on the porch, soaking in the view. It was a beautiful start to a beautiful day. The sun had shown itself over the east side of the village at exactly 5:43, casting orange and pink light across the village. The birds made their presence known; the sounds of chirping and leaves rustling were carried by a light breeze that wove its way up in between buildings and up to the porch, just enough to make his bangs sway. In the distance, the shopkeepers were abuzz, organizing and preparing for the early-birds to storm their way into the market district. _'I think I'm beginning to understand your dream, sensei. A world entirely at peace. I could get used to-'_

"DAMMIT I WOKE UP LATE _AGAIN_!", A voice thundered from Naruto's room. A navy blur made its way towards Minato, gaining on him awfully quickly.

_'Aaaaaaaaand then again, there's Naruto.'_

"OUTTATHEWAYTOUSAN_GOTTAPEE_THANKYOU!" Naruto yelled, leaving a trail of blue flames in his wake. After finishing his business in the bathroom, Naruto dashed for the door, catching the two biscuits his father had tossed at him with practiced ease and made his way out the door.

-Nara Compound – 7:05 AM-

Shikamaru Nara was never a morning person, but today felt different. '_Of course, dumbass, this is your first day as a Genin of the Leaf!' _Shikamaru paused mid-walk to let out an enormous yawn, and then continued on his way. Yep, _definitely_ not a morning person.

-Training Ground #89 –Main Entrance 7:13 AM-

Shikamaru slowly walked his way towards the clearing where he, Naruto, and Asuma were supposed to meet. Upon arrival, he noticed two things. One, there was a building that had somehow been erected overnight. Two, it had a couple of panels attached to the side of the building, with different switches. That left no other option. Today was their introduction to infiltration and information gathering.

"Hey, am I late?" A voice called out. Sure enough, Naruto was approaching the training grounds at an alarming rate.

"No," Shikamaru simply stated. "Asuma-sensei isn't here yet."

Naruto slowed down and panted out "When is he supposed to be here, 7:15?"

"Yes, I was supposed to get here at 7:15, and here I am" Asuma answers, walking out from the trees. "I can assume that you have already figured out the purpose of this particular building, so we'll get straight to the point. You two are to find a way to enter this building, and grab a fake document from one of the rooms. There are traps, so be careful."

Naruto and Shikamaru looked at each other, and then back at Asuma. They were ready. Taking notice of their determined look, Asuma gave them the go-ahead.

Shikamaru immediately turned to Naruto. Seeing the look Shikamaru was giving him, Naruto offered up his plan. He was a prankster, after all. "I'll just go in and get it."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"

Naruto shook his head."I know how you are really good with strategies, but infiltration is usually a one-man job. If we had a map of the building with actual patrol and guard schedules, I would let you form the plan. But here, we have no map, so I will have my shadow clones go in and take care of the traps. Then, you and I can go in and just look for the document."

Shikamaru lightened slightly at Naruto's proposition. He was right. He was an excellent strategist, but they didn't have anything to work with.

After a short time, the clones were done dismantling the traps that they found. After dispersing themselves, Naruto gave the "move in" signal, and they each entered different windows that the clones had left open. Shikamaru entered a window on the first floor, and started searching for the document. Not long after, Shikamaru called Naruto down to the first floor; he had found the document and had Naruto check the room for security seals, and for seals on the document itself. Finding none, Naruto and Shikamaru casually walked out the front door.

The sight that greeted them, however, was what they had never expected. Asuma was waiting outside the door, scroll in hand, looking somewhat grim.

"You can toss that aside, you two have a mission. This is directly from the Hokage."

Naruto dropped the document and took the scroll from Asuma, and broke the seal.

_Epsilon Unit,_

_You two are to recover any information from an old Konoha war base of bandits and missing-nin that are believed to be aligned with Orochimaru. Your mission starts as soon as possible. The seal below contains a map with the location of the base, and the blueprints of the base. You have two weeks to gather as much information as possible. I wish you the best of luck on your mission._

_Namikaze Minato_

_Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure_

Shikamaru's eyes widen in alarm after reading through the mission scroll. Naruto, who had read the scroll first, made a shadow clone, and gave the clone its orders.

"Go and help Shikamaru pack for two weeks, possibly longer if the mission fails. When you are done collecting everything, seal it into this scroll (tosses the clone a scroll). After you are done, give the scroll to Shikamaru and disperse yourself. Got it?"

"Got it."

Naruto then turned to Shikamaru. "Meet me at the gate in twenty minutes, or sooner if possible. I'm going to go pack as well."

Shikamaru nodded in confirmation and took off running towards the Nara Compound, clone tagging along. Naruto turned around and took off in a rapid blur towards the Namikaze Compound.

-Front Gate, 15 minutes later-

Naruto and Shikamaru took one last look at the two large gates that guarded the entrance to the village that they called home. Deciding that they now had something much more important to do, Shikamaru looked at the map, and then took off running at a steady pace, with Naruto tagging along right at his side.

…**.Aaaand that's a wrap! Stick around folks!**

**MPL**


End file.
